"There have been a few protests on large agencies...That will add six or eight months to the process," Krumbholz says. "It has had an impact. We don't know the extent to which agencies have been more cautious because of that."

Another factor is that there are more offerings under Networx than FTS 2001, particularly in the wireless and security areas.Networx transition is slow because "there's caution on the part of the agencies. There's the breadth of services capabilities...and the increased rigor in the procurement process," Mohan says. "All of those things are contributing to the additional amount of time it is taking agencies to issue their requirements."

"Networx is at least twice the size of FTS 2001," Zeleniak says. "Some agencies are, in fact, putting more into their statements of work in Networx than under FTS 2001. So it's taking them longer to put out their statements of work."

Sprint says confusion between Networx Universal and Networx Enterprise is slowing transition. Sprint bid but lost the Networx Universal deal.

"A dozen or more agencies have selected Sprint, but there still is a real image problem with the Networx Enterprise contract," White says, adding that Sprint is primarily selling IP and wireless services on its Networx Enterprise contract. "From the get-go...all the talk was about the Universal contract, and Networx Enterprise was more of an afterthought."